Fox News host Brian Kilmeade argued on Wednesday that if President George W. Bush could put up with “off-the-wall” questions from deceased journalist Helen Thomas then Donald Trump should be able to face Fox News debate moderator Megyn Kelly.

“Sam Donaldson would always go at Ronald Reagan,” Kilmeade said of Trump’s decision not to attend Thursday’s debate. “You can’t say, ‘I can’t take questions from Sam Donaldson anymore, I don’t think David Gregory should be allowed to question George Bush anymore.’ You deal with the tougher questions.”

As an extreme example, Kilmeade offered Thomas, who was known as the “First Lady of the Press” for her tough questions to 11 presidents over a period of 57 years. Thomas was known for hammering the Bush administration’s policies on Israel, the Iraq war and the so-called “war on terror.”

“What’s that woman? Helen…,” Kilmeade asked.

“Thomas,” co-host Steve Doocy offered.

“Helen Thomas for years had these questions that seemingly were off-the-wall and confrontational,” Kilmeade opined. “I don’t get what [Trump] is doing because we actually know everybody, there’s no bias among the moderators.”

“We know there is no bias from the moderators. There’s no mystery there.”

About the Author

David Edwards has served as an editor at Raw Story since 2006. His work can also be found at Crooks & Liars, and he's also been published at The BRAD BLOG. He came to Raw Story after working as a network manager for the state of North Carolina and as as engineer developing enterprise resource planning software. Follow him on Twitter at @DavidEdwards.